THB #593: Monsters - The Lyle & Erik Menendez Story

I have been kind of shocked to see some of the “same old Ryan Murphy thing” reviews for Monsters: The Lyle & Eric Menendez Story because I found it, by far, the most unexpected of all of Murphy’s real life crime portraits. (The best one is still O.J., but for its own reasons.)

In 1993, I was living in Chicago and I watched almost every minute of The Menendez Trial. So I experienced all the twists and turns in that context. This 9-episode series changes that perspective, from the start, but putting the whole story pretty much in order… of the lives of the Menendezes, the 1989 murders, the aftermath, and eventually of the trial.

The series starts with the memorial for Jose and Kitty. Then we are in the lives of The Brothers soon after, with the memories haunting Erik… which is when the therapist Jerome Oziel comes into the picture and becomes the first leak in the perfect-murder bucket which The Brothers seem to have gotten away with.

And all of this, especially with the meetings with Ozi…